Emergency chief replaced

Page Tools

RECOVERING the dead took priority over coaxing the living out of
New Orleans, as the Bush administration replaced its emergency
management chief in a post-Hurricane Katrina political storm.

There was some cautious hope that the death toll might not be as
big as feared, even as turgid water polluted with bacteria, sewage
and chemicals gradually receded in the near-empty city, once home
to 450,000. It left behind an equally dangerous muck plastering
streets and homes.

City officials said the effort to rescue the stranded and the
helpless that began after the August 29 storm breached the city's
levees had officially ended and efforts were now turned entirely to
finding bodies. They said they were in no hurry to oust those who
have refused to quit the city despite an evacuation order.

After days of criticism that President George W Bush and his
team had failed to respond quickly and adequately to the disaster,
Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) head Michael Brown was
recalled to Washington.

His role overseeing recovery efforts on the US Gulf Coast was
handed to Vice-Admiral Thad Allen, chief of staff of the Coast
Guard.

Four top Democratic senators, headed by Minority Leader Harry
Reid, wrote to Bush after the announcement, again asking that Brown
be fired.

"It is not enough to remove Mr Brown from the disaster scene,"
they wrote. "The individual in charge of FEMA must inspire
confidence and be able to coordinate hundreds of federal, state and
local resources. Mr Brown simply doesn't have the ability or the
experience to oversee a coordinated federal response of this
magnitude."

Some senior Republicans had also attacked Brown. Senator Trent
Lott, a Republican whose house in Pascagoula, Mississippi was
destroyed by Katrina, said: "Michael Brown has been acting like a
private, instead of a general."

Bush had publicly praised Brown last week for doing a "heck of a
job". The last straw appeared to come yesterday with published
reports that Brown had padded his resume, although Homeland
Security Secretary Michael Chertoff - Brown's boss - dodged a
question on those reports.

The official death count in Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana
stood at more than 300, even though much higher totals had been
feared. About a million people were displaced by the
destruction.

"There's some encouragement in the initial sweeps ... The
numbers (of dead) so far are relatively minor as compared with the
dire predictions of 10,000," said Colonel Terry Ebbert, director of
Homeland Security for New Orleans.

"The search for living individuals across the city has been
conducted," Ebbert said.

"What we are starting today ... is a recovery operation, a
recovery operation to search by street, by grid, for the remains of
any individuals who have passed away."

It appeared that those who had refused to leave the city - at
one time thought to number in the thousands - were now more willing
to depart.

Provisions for allowing for some to take pets along may have
changed some minds and rescue workers said they had retrieved
hundreds of cats and dogs, reuniting some with their owners. But
there were holdouts.

US military pilots who have been flying over the city for the
past nine days say it is clear the water is receding.

"Over in the western areas you don't see the standing water, you
see the mud. It's every bit as nasty as the water and it's going to
take a long time to clean up but at least the water is gone," said
Chief Warrant Officer Robert Osborn, a pilot with the US 1st
Cavalry.

"Today we're seeing cars that are able to drive around. The
causeway is open. Folks are out trying to put plastic on their
roofs. At nighttime we're seeing lights, power is coming on little
by little."

Dozens of homeowners have managed to return to their damaged
homes across the shut-down city and outlying parishes. Plastic blue
tarps have been stretched over damaged roofs.

In some areas residents could be seen cleaning up damage but
most neighbourhoods were ghostly.

City officials said New Orleans had been "fully secured", with
14,000 troops on patrol to prevent looting.